


Sea Salt Ice Cream

by dancingflaaames



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Other, frienship, platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-13 21:09:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17495423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dancingflaaames/pseuds/dancingflaaames
Summary: Lea has his own version of a Paopu fruit.





	Sea Salt Ice Cream

The first place he travels to when he becomes Lea again is Twilight Town. He takes his time walking around the familiar streets, memories of days spent fighting alongside Roxas against the heartless. Evenings watching the permanent sunset as they ate ice cream before heading back to the castle.

He continues to walk around aimlessly before finding his way to the familiar ice cream shop where he spent so much of his allowance on ice cream. The elderly man recognizes him immediately and asks him where he’s been hiding. Lea tells him that moved for work and grew too busy to find time to visit. As he pays for his ice cream, he promises the elderly man that he’ll make sure to make time to stop by for a visit. 

After his ice cream is purchased and goodbyes are made, he heads to the clock tower, looking out at the perma-sunset. He eats his ice cream in silence while tears run down his face. He’s haunted by so many memories in this place. Memories of winner sticks, of always talked about, but never planned beach trips. Memories of sharing ice cream with Roxas and a hooded whose face was blurred by a bright sun beam and a name that played at the tip of his tongue. 

Memories long past forgotten swimming through his head like the koi fish his father kept in their garden and in the fountains in front of the Castle in Radiant Garden. 

Memories of Isa and himself as children running through their neighborhood, chasing each other on their bikes and having to explain to Isa’s mom how his church clothes got so dirty. Memories of them as teens making their way to the giant Castle in Radiant garden. 

Not all his memories are good, though. Memories of the lab beneath the castle, of imprisonment and pain, of Isa's cries followed by long, dark silences in the World that Never Was. He was the reason they'd been captured, the reason why Isa had been hurt. He was the reason they were forced to join the Organization.

He has to make things right. He has to-- needs to -- save Isa, even if their friendship is broken beyond repair. 

When he’s finished with his ice cream, he sees ‘Winner!’ hidden under pale blue. He tucks the stick into a pocket and makes haste to his next destination; Master Yen Sid’s Mysterious Tower. When 

It’s during his second visit to Twilight Town that he realizes that things are much different now. The Isa he knew was no longer in the empty husk he called Saix for so long. He had never seen so much hatred and anger in those amber eyes. He just wished it hadn’t taken him this long to realize how serious things had gotten.

It’s a few days after he saves Sora from Xehanort’s group that he’s able to get to the clock tower, ice cream in hand and thoughts on his mind that he verbally releases into the open, pretending that Roxas is sitting next to him, hanging on every word he says. 

Sometimes he imagines Roxas giving him advice on even his worst problems. 

“He wasn’t Isa, ya know?” he says to his pretend Roxas, who looks dubious but doesn’t argue. “When we were in the organization, Saix would look at me and I could see the recognition in his eyes. I could see that he remembered who I was, why we stuck together for so long. Why we stuck together and snuck into each other rooms in the middle of the night despite our lack of hearts.” 

He says before taking a bite of his popsicle, pressing his tongue against the salty and sweet cold treat so it’s against the roof of his mouth until it smooshes. 

“You don’t care about this, I know how much you hated Saix. But I do appreciate you listening to me, you’re a great listener.” He can imagine Roxas shrugging, not saying anything to argue. Maybe Roxas would take a bite of his ice cream so he wouldn’t have to reply. Lea gets it. “I remember how disappointed you looked each time you caught me sneaking out of my room to visit him. But I owe it to him, It was my fault, so I owe it to him.” he says, taking another bite and allowing silence to fall. 

He hears footsteps and he wonders if he’s impeding on the time that Olette, Pence, and Hayner spend up here. He quickly turns to tell them that he’s sorry for taking their spot and his eyes grow wide upon seeing Sora standing there looking like a deer in the headlights. 

“Hey Axel,” the brunette says, hands deep into the pockets of his pants. There’s an unusually shy smile on his face. 

“Hey Sora. What brings you up here?” Lea asks before turning back to looking over the town, absentmindedly eating his popsicle. 

Sora doesn't reply, not immediately. Out of the corner of his eye Lea sees Sora take a seat beside him, staring out at the sleepy town. Lea finishes his ice cream quickly-- he can feel the shift in the atmosphere and has a feeling it's gonna grow intense.

Minutes pass before Sora finally speaks up, clearing his throat first before he starts. “I didn’t get the chance to say thank you, for saving me from being turned into a vessel,” he says softly, fingers playing with a loose thread on his shirt. 

Lea’s body tenses for a moment before he relaxes again, shoulders slouched forward. “Oh, it’s no big deal.” he says his own hands going to play with the charms on his coat. “It’s what friends do right?” he muses. He can feel Sora’s eyes on him and he turns and gives him a closed lip smile. 

Sora returns the gesture before turning to look over the town and they sit in complete silence until it’s time to get back to work. 

\--

 

Sora shows up moments after Saix leaves and he can see the pain and distress from the encounter on Lea’s face. He notices the second wrapper and he wonders if Lea’s starting to eat more, or if he’s buying two on the chance they’re successful in getting Roxas’ heart out of his. 

“Lea…” he whispers reaching out and before he has the chance to get his thoughts out, a harsh ‘Don’t’ echoes in his ears. Lea summons a portal and runs through to disappear. 

“It’s okay Sora, give him time, he’ll come around,” Donald says and he can feel Goofy’s hand on his shoulder. He doesn’t say anything for a long time before turning to Donald and Goofy. “I want to see what we can do. I want to speed up the process of bringing Roxas back. Seeing Lea like this, it hurts me. I’m worried he’s going to isolate himself before we get the chance to bring Roxas back.” he says, the tone of his voice feels like he’s never been so determined before in his life. 

He rushes down the stairs and heads to the usual spot to find Pence and see what they can do to download Roxas. 

When they arrive at the usual spot, Pence informs them that he went ahead and started downloading the date that would create a body for Roxas the night before. 

“I was actually going to check on it right now and then call you when it was finished. If you want we can go check on him.” Pence offers. 

It takes everything in Sora’s power to not drag Pence behind him as he rushes the mansion. 

When they arrive in less than 10 minutes because Sora can’t hold in his excitement (and won’t admit his adrenaline rush was powered by his concern for Lea) Pence logs into the computer and turns to Sora with a wide grin. “It’s downloaded!” he says excitedly.

Sora refuses to stop bouncing on his feet as he waits for instructions on how to extract Roxas’ heart from his own. 

Once they knew what to do, the extraction goes flawlessly and Sora watches as Roxas’ heart floats to the pods where the Roxas replicate waits for it. He watches in wonderment as the body’s pale skin grows color and the white hair that was styled like Roxas’ turns into a golden brass. 

“According to Ienzo, he should be awake in a couple of days. I’ll call you when he’s awake.” 

As promised Pence calls Sora to inform him that Roxas is awake and the first thing the blonde asks when Sora arrives is where Axel’s at and if he can see him. 

Sora promises Roxas they can go to see Axel, as soon Roxas puts on some clothes and gets something to eat that won’t be the 50 pounds of sea salt ice cream he and Lea will end up eating. 

Once lunch is made and eaten, Sora takes Roxas to the clock tower. 

Lea senses their presence and goes to snap at Sora, wanting to be left alone when his eyes land on the blond and all snark is replaced with surprise. He stands up and rushes to Roxas, tackling him in a hug, burying his face in blond locks and grabbing on to clothes and arms. He looks up after a moment and mouths’ thank you to Sora. 

Sora gives him a nod, his face fighting the burst with his own smile. He takes his leave so Roxas and Lea can take some time to catch up. 

\----

After they defeat Xehanort, Kairi and Roxas leave to Master Yen Sid’s to train for their Mark of the Mastery. Riku’s off with Mickey, Goofy, and Donald at the castle ,and Sora’s left to his own devices in Twilight Town.

Lea fought long and hard and despite his best efforts, he was unable to save Isa from falling to darkness and being destroyed as one of Xehanort’s vessels. 

It’s after the third week of not being able to find Lea, that Sora wonders if he’s hiding out, cleaning his wounds and mourning over the loss of his friends he made during his time with the Organization. When the fourth week starts to approach, Sora’s convinced that Lea doesn’t want to hang out with him and the others. 

It’s at the end of that week that he starts to wonder if Lea ever considered him a friend. 

He finds himself at the clock tower after Olette, Pence, and Hayner have left, staring at the horizon. He turns when he hears movement and gives Lea a smile as he takes a seat. “Lea!” he says excited to see the tall red-head. 

He won’t admit it aloud, but he’s happy to see Lea hasn’t decided to hide away any longer. 

“Remember when we fought together in the realm between worlds? Right before I gave it my all and defeated the dusks so you and your friends could get out of their safely?” Lea asks after a few moments silence. 

Sora doesn’t say anything, just nods, not taking his eyes off the horizon. “You said, Roxas made you feel like you had a heart and that I made you feel the same way.” he answers eventually, turning to look at Lea. 

Lea smiles and lets out a small chuckle as he grabs two popsicles, handing one to Sora. “Yeah, that feeling hasn’t changed.” he says. 

Sora looks at the ice cream before taking it. He takes a bite of it before smiling, bumping his shoulder against his friend’s. 

“Yeah, you make me feel the same.”

**Author's Note:**

> I made myself sad when thinking about Lea and how he only shares ice cream with people he cares about (Isa, Roxas, Xion and Kairi) and how sea salt ice cream is probably his version of a paopu fruit and once he shares one with you, you're his friend forever. 
> 
> A huge shoutout to SirLadySketch for reading this over for me and helping me beta. I really appreciate it.


End file.
